Love campaign says if Dems win, so does Pelosi, but McAdams says he wouldn’t support the minority leader

(Scott Sommerdorf | Tribune file photo) Ben McAdams and his family celebrate just after it was announced that he had won his race at the Utah Democratic Convention, Saturday, April 28, 2018. McAdams' son Isaac McAdams raises his fist in victory as James and Julie McAdams react.

Love, speaking at state and county GOP conventions last month, tied McAdams to Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton to boot, in her remarks to delegates. Her campaign manager, Dave Hansen, doubled down on the Pelosi tie-in Thursday: If Democrats take the House, she becomes speaker, hands down, he said.

“It doesn’t matter whether he would support her or not. If you elect a Democrat to this seat, that’s a seat in favor of Nancy Pelosi,” Hansen said. “If you want to have the Republicans still control the House of Representatives, you vote for Mia Love.”

State Republicans are making the same point to stir up the party faithful. A survey emailed to Republican voters Thursday says voting for Love and other Republicans will block a Democratic House takeover and a likely Pelosi speakership.

Hansen added that if McAdams lost in a vote against her, “What kind of assignments do you think he would get in Congress?”

McAdams countered that the race “is about who’s going to be the best representative for Utah” and said Love was “going negative” in the race because “she’s got nothing else to talk about.”

“I like Mia Love as a person,” he said. “But as a congresswoman, she’s been an empty seat at the table of Utah problem-solvers.”